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Disavowed group spent $10K on Evanston election

An ad "Paid for by A Better Evanston" on the Washington Post website April 1.

The Republican-affiliated political action committee that made a late splash in Evanston's election this year by running ads disavowed by all the candidates it supported has reported spending $10,000 on the effort.

The ad campaign saw ads promoting mayoral candidate Steve Hagerty, city clerk candidate Devon Reid and 1st Ward aldermanic candidate Lee Cabot popping up on an array of national websites when they were visited by Evanston residents, as well as ads opposing incumbent 1st Ward Alderman Judy Fiske.

The group lists as its committee chair Blair Garber, who is is the Evanston Township Republican Committeeman, the state GOP Central Committeeman for the 9th Congressional District and chairman of the Illinois State Lottery Control Board.

Once those ties became apparent, Hagerty repudiated the group's endorsement, and the two other candidates it backed soon followed suit.

A Better Evanston didn't report receiving any contributions in its report to the state and, with no funds on hand, it wasn't clear how it plans to pay its debt to the ad agency.

Reid was quoted in another publication on March 24 remarking about A Better Evanston:

"Honestly, I had no clue about the group prior to its inception. I think they're endorsing me because I stand for open government and transparency, I've heard the group is a Republican group, but I think the issues that pertain to the clerk's office are non-partisan and I think everyone can get behind open government,"

However, Garber's Friends of Blair gave Reid $250 on March 7.

Are we really supposed to believe that he didn't know what Garber was up to given the fact that he was a major donor?

How can he disavow support when he is getting direct financing from Garber?